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Arva boom may cost London

City councillors endorsed Monday a plan to expand Arva's access to London sewers, allowing a building boom in the tiny community that could cost city hall millions in new tax money.

Coun. Joni Baechler, the lone opposing vote, called the pact "astonishing." But Coun. Joe Swan, who moved that staff draw up an agreement with Middlesex Centre, which governs Arva, used a different description for the potential deal: innovative.

Wherever politicians stand on the idea's merits, the numbers projected in a staff report are enormous.

Arva -- whose population of 550 includes London Mayor Joe Fontana -- would increase the amount of sanitary sewage collected and treated by London, allowing for jacked-up residential construction.

The homes' buyers, city staff say, would be "individuals who would have otherwise chosen housing within (London's) urban growth boundary."

Baechler, citing an estimated loss of $45 million in assessment growth, or new taxes from new homes, was stunned by Monday's endorsement from the built and natural environment committee.

"Just last Friday we had a meeting to discuss increasing revenue and jobs in the City of London, and (according to) this report, we're losing $45 million," Baechler said post-vote.

"(People) would want to live in Arva and have all the services of living in London. From my perspective, being good neighbours to the tune of $45 million doesn't make sense to me."

But Swan says the deal -- which staff have been instructed to draw up, and bring back for council approval -- is "innovative," because Middlesex Centre would have found sewage capacity some other way.